Shankar has signed up Shah Rukh Khan to play the lead role in Robot

CHENNAI: Director Shankar, the emperor of style, has pulled off a spectacular coup.

He has signed up Shah Rukh Khan to play the lead role in Robot, a sci-fi film, and supposed to be Shankar's dream project. Robot is Shankar's second project in Hindi, Nayak being the first.

King Khan was so bowled over by the story that he has stepped in as producer too. And Shankar's magnum opus would be produced by Red Chillies Entertainment.

Shah Rukh, whose Chak de India is set to release soon, is so excited about Shankar's film that he has decided to push all other projects aside, sources close to the actor revealed.

Work on the mega budget film will commence in four months' time, although Shankar is already busy writing notes on every aspect of Robot.

The rest of the star cast is being finalised, and with the badshah of box office in the lead role, there is already stiff competition among other Bollywood frontrunners to go the Robot way.

Much is being read into the fact that Shankar and A R Rahman were in Canada on the eve of Rajnikanth's Sivaji and speculation is rife that the latter may score the music for Shankar's latest celluloid offering.

Shankar when contacted, refused to comment on the movie but confirmed that the film would be on the floors soon with SRK in the lead role.

Robot the making of which was first reported by this website's newspaper, is likely to hit theatres in 2008.

Source: Newsindpress

I would like to believe that I am the last superstar of India, Shah Rukh Khan

Film critic,Anil Sinanan, talks hockey and greatness with Indian hero Shah Rukh Khan

I arrive for my 5pm appointment with Shah Rukh Khan at the plush Yash Raj Studios in Bombay, only to be told: “I am afraid Mr Khan is running a little late.”

This is no surprise: Khan is a busy man. The star of more than 50 films and with a fan base that’s numbered in the billions (Bollywood has a global audience of 3.6 billion; Hollywood has 2.5 billion) it is the consistent success of his films that was directly responsible for putting Bollywood as we know it on the global cinematic map.

Born in 1965 in New Delhi, Khan entered Bollywood via theatre and television in the 1980s. Initially, his success was based on his antihero turns in Baazigar and Darr, both released in 1993. In 1995 he resurrected the good romantic hero in the blockbuster Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) – or DDLJ, as it is known – which widened his fan base and took Indian cinema to an international audience.

This was the first film to include a positive “untainted by the evils of the West” nonresident Indian (NRI) character. It spoke to the NRIs of the world, who returned to the cinema in droves. His subsequent NRI hits such as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001) entrenched Khan’s hold on the domestic and overseas box office.

So it is that all of five-and-a-half hours after the appointed time that I finally meet “King” Khan. He is dressed in jeans and a crisp white shirt, and wearing large sunglasses, because of an eye infection. Even without being able to see his eyes I think he looks tired.

Luckily, he lives up to his bubbly reputation and chats away about his next release, Chak de India (Go for it, India!), which next month becomes the first Indian film to be given a London open air premiere. In the film he plays a hockey coach who trains a girls’ team. Traditonally, hockey is India’s national sport – Indians invented the game – but in recent times its popularity has slipped behind those of cricket and football. Does he hope that his film will revive interest in the game?

“I think the reason Indian hockey went down was due to the change in the format of the game, from one that was skill-based to one based on physical strength,” Khan explains. “If, in this country of one billion people, six girls and two boys decide to take up hockey after seeing the film I think I will have succeeded in passing on a message of the importance of hockey as an art form.”

But Khan is taking a professional risk. With the exception of the Oscar-nominated Lagaan (2001), which dealt with cricket, there are hardly any successful sporting Indian films. Was he aware that the film may fail? “If people such as me who are at the top of our work do not take chances and make different kinds of cinema, no one else will,” the actor reasons.

And Khan’s mission may well succeed – Bollywood stars are treated like gods. Why is this so? “In this country entertainment is the last achievement for the common man,” he says. “People regard me as taking away their everyday sadness for three hours, when they can sit in a dark, air-conditioned hall and see me fulfil their dreams. Shah Rukh Khan gives hope to people.”

He is right: he is often dismissed by critics as a ham actor with five basic expressions, but Indian audiences do not really care about acting ability. It is star quality that matters and Khan’s energetic, endearing and cheeky screen presence is the key to his appeal.

So what’s next for King Khan? Has he thought of going back to his theatre origins, perhaps in London’s West End? “I do not think my accent is right for the West End,” he smiles. “And I don’t have the time.”

As I take my leave – at midnight – I ask him about Bollywood’s future. “The entertainment industry is changing rapidly, with the growth of satellite channels and multiplexes. Soon there will not be any superstars. I would like to believe that I am the last superstar of India.”

Source: Times Online UK

Shahrukh and wife Gauri will buy 10 per cent stake in BAG Glamour

BAG Glamour, which will soon launch channels in the entertainment and lifestyle space, is part of the the parent company BAG Films & Media Ltd.
Sources confirmed the development adding that the actor and his spouse will hold the stake in their personal capacity.
The other investors in BAG

Glamour will be India Bulls’ promoter Sameer Gehlaut, who will buy 15 per cent, Kolkata-based private investor High Growth will have 15 per cent, and the remaining 60 per cent will be held by the parent company and promoters such as Anuradha Prasad, Rajiv Shukla among others. When contacted, Chairman and Managing Director, BAG Films & Media, Anuradha Prasad declined to comment. Khan has been dabbling in the entertainment space though this is the first time that he will invest in a TV channel and production house.

Earlier, Khan had floated film production house Dreamz Unlimited with actor Juhi Chawla. He also launched
Red Chillies Entertainment, a film production house in 2004. BAG Films & Media, apart from producing television shows, also operates in the radio space, under the brand name Radio Dhamaal, via a separate entity BAG Infotainment.

The company has announced plans to diversify into television broadcasting and will launch channels in the non-news and news segment. While the non-news channels will operate under BAG Glamour, the news channels will come under BAG Newsline. The channels are expected to go on air by 2008.

Source: Business Standard

SRK talks about Abu Salem’s phone calls

Not long ago actor ShahRukh Khan used to live in fear of underworld Don Abu Salem. However, in a recently released biography, King Of Bollywood Shah Rukh written by Anupama Chopra, the actor talks about Salem’s phone calls.

Shah Rukh says Salem tried to pressurise him to do certain films on communal grounds.
“What kind of a Muslim are you? You refused to work with a Muslim. Shouldn't you be doing something for your community?” Salem used to say reveals Shah Rukh.

However, Shah Rukh says that he did not flinch. He apparently replied to Salem.
“I have worked with Mansoor Khan, Abbas Mastan and Aziz Mirza. I am also working with Mahesh Bhatt whose mother is a Muslim,” says Shah Rukh.

According to the book, Salem was impressed by Shah Rukh's composed answers and decided not to attack him.
Security was beefed up at Shah Rukh’s residence after the incident. But the phone calls did not stop.
Salem did not resort to extortion but kept asking Shah Rukh to do certain films.

The book also claims that impressed by the actor's courage, Salem finally let him off.